One of my idiosyncrasies, I guess you’d call it, is that I like to read the book before I see the movie. Of course, this only applies to books/movies that interest me in the first place, so it’s not a complete obsession; rest assured I’m not out there reading every book that some Hollywood-player deems worthy of a motion picture. Some books have been turned into really half-assed movies, so it only makes sense to check the book out first, if I can help it—as a journalist, you have to go straight to the source material, right? Granted there are some books that have made the medium-jump from print to film pretty well; I really liked the film versions of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Fight Club, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, A Clockwork Orange, Jurassic Park was pretty cool when I was a kid, even The Beach was enjoyable, albeit trimmed down.

Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild, has been on my to read list for almost a year. I’d heard good things about it, but other books just seemed to sneak above it on the list for no apparent reason; maybe it was a combination of time and library-availability, or lack of funds. But when I learned that Sean Penn had made Krakauer’s book into a film, and that it was coming out later in September, I had to bump it up on the list. I went out to B&N last week and found the book right away, featuring the new movie-poster cover, which they always seem to do with books made into films. Call me a geek or a literary snob, but it irks me to buy these film-versions of books; I’m not sure why, it just seems tacky to own the Hollywoodized copy. In any case, it is what it is; I wanted to read the book, the content was the same inside, and I wasn’t about to go out of my way to track down an older copy.

I started to read it and couldn’t put it down. I’d given myself a good couple of weeks to read it before the movie came out, but easily finished it in two or three days. I really enjoyed the story and Krakauer is a fine literary journalist. At the risk of slipping into an eighth-grade book report, I’ll say this: Into The Wild is tragic and consuming at the same time, and I found myself identifying with Chris McCandless more than I like to admit. I gather that most seekers will identify, to a certain extent, with his brand of reckless adventure, optimism and idealism. The book isn’t perfect; the pace slows down towards the end and the last few chapters drag a bit, but if you find yourself interested enough in McCandless’ life to get that far into the book, you’ll probably appreciate the insight the last chapters offer. Overall it’s a great adventure story and cautionary tale about the harshness of the wild. I recommend it.

We’ll see if the movie holds up to its literary counterpart. From what I’ve read it’s getting good reviews and the trailer looks pretty wild, no pun intended. See for yourself: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ikPZdpGDmOg